Jump to navigation
| Friday, February 12, 2010 | |
What could there possibly be to say about the hanging of paintings? One simply hangs them on the wall, ensures they are relatively straight and is done with it. Not really. The way paintings were hung in public art galleries during the Regency is not the same as the way paintings are hung in art galleries and museums in modern times. Should someone from the Regency walk into a museum today, they would be shocked at what they would perceive as the poor use of the space. However, most artists from the Regency would much prefer the way paintings are now typically hung in most galleries and museums.
The display of paintings in Regency art galleries and the now antiquated practice of skying ...
[Read More!]
The garden maze has made numerous appearances in a plethora of Regency novels. Often it is the setting for a clandestine romantic tryst or sometimes it is the secret meeting place for the villain and his or her henchman. But regardless of its use, the Regency garden maze was the end of a long tradition of mazes and labyrinths dating back to that very first one, at the Palace of Knossos, designed by Daedalus, in which Theseus vanquished the Minotaur.
A brief tracing of the path of the labyrinth and the maze from Crete to the English Regency pleasure garden ...
[Read More!]
Posted on 01/29/10 at 07:29:00 by Kathryn Kane
Category: Entertainments
-
For anyone who might be interested, the ball of thread which Ariadne gave Theseus is the origin of the word "clue" in the English language. "Clew" in both England and Scotland meant a ball of yarn or thread during the Middle Ages. The word still has the same meaning in parts of Scotland to this day. Over time, the spelling of the word changed to "clue" when it was used with the meaning of a hint or key to the solution of a problem.
- [Link to this item]
The theatres of the Regency did not only glitter with the talents of the great actors who trod their boards. They also glittered with the presence of the many members of the beau monde who flocked to the nightly performances during the season. But more germane to the subject of this article, they glittered with light, all the time. The house lights were never dimmed during a performance in any theatre auditorium in Regency England.
Despite the many instances in scores of Regency romance novels I have read over the years in which the theatre house lights dim and some form of seduction ensues in the darkness, it could not have happened. It was physically and technically impossible to dim the house lights of any theatre auditorium during the years of the Regency. And theatre-goers would have been appalled at the very notion. They came to the theatre to see and be seen. The play itself was secondary to the performances going on in the stalls and private boxes.
[Read More!]
|
